Wrapping intercooler pipes with exhaust wrap, worth it?

[dombat]

I see loads of pictures of R's with exhaust wrapping on the intercooler pipes, does it make any difference?

My mate who runs radicals, formula ford's and a Pilbeam says it wont do anything and really need the reflective stuff like this
http://www.thermotec.com/cool-air-tube-heat-shield.html
or this stuff
http://www.thermotec.com/thermo-shield.html

what do you reckon?

 

[Jon Olds]

You want to dissapate the heat, not keep it in, dont you?

 

[geoff pine]

There not much you can do about the heat generated in the pipe but the reflective heat wrap should allow it to start cooling down as it leaves the tutbo as its reflecting the radiating heat of the engine and manifold. As it passes the hottest area under the bonnet .

 

[Mr GTiR]

IMO, Iwould not bother. For the money your going to spend on the wrap, you won't see/feel any benefit from it.

If you want to lag anything, then get the compressor side of the turbo done (if bigger than the stock T28) and also the exhaust elbow/down pipe.

 

[dombat]

Surely it's the radiant heat from the engine bay we need to worry about (such as the manifold cooking the pipe that passes in front of it (if your FMIC has that kind of piping)) so the reflective foil type must have some effect in reflecting this heat away?

Think the exhaust elbow/down pipe plan is a good one though, cheers.

 

[GTIR-LOZ]

my outlet pipe from my turbo passes over the manifold and it does get very hot indeed, i just need to get the whole pipe made in ally instead of half ally and half hose and i will wrap mine as it can only lead to lower temps entering the intercooler resulting in lower temps exiting the cooler

anyone know where to get ally intercooler pipes made up near southend???

 

[Trondelond]

http://www.gtiroc.com/forums/showpost.php?p=353024&postcount=83

Here's how I solved it, used DEI reflective tape on the piping that runs over the manifold. I havent actually _run_ the car after I did this, so I don't know how much effect it'll have.

 

[Adam L]

The intercooler is going to cool the air (that's what it's there for, remember) more than some reflective heat wrap, plus the air flows at such a rapid rate it's not going to have time to be heated up by the intercooler pipe.

 

[Fast Guy]

It might be worth wrapping the pipe after the intercooler. It would realy depend on if the under bonnet temperature is higher than the temp inside the pipe or not.

If the airflow from outside can get onto the turbo compressor outlet above the manifold, it will help cool it slightly, but the intercooler is designed to do the job.

 

[GTIR-LOZ]

at idle it will not be as cool thus maybe giving a heatsoak effect after sitting in traffic

 

[MORF114]

Ive done mine to insulate the pipes from under bonnet tempretures if you look at heat wrap designed for wiring and hoses to keep heat out its all made out of fibreglass heat wrap, if i insulate it from a 2 degree intake temp rise id be happy, it must be helping a bit and i dont think it would keep engine bay heat into the pipes
I can always wrap it in thermo tec cool air tube heat shield or tape to help it some more, which i would like to do to the before intercooler pipe, id like to see when i take my car to be tuned what the temp is without reflective tape and after with the tape through my air temp sensor for my sm4.

 

[MORF114]

I'd also like to run a cryo2 setup for my intake charge looks like a pretty good kit and co2 is so cheap it may well be worth it $500 and a purge valve to show off to all the tossers at maccy d's.